A log file, a special file or a collection of special files to record operational events of a computer system, mainly records every incident happening to the computer system, including startup, running and shutdown of various services. The log file includes an application program part, a security part and a system part, etc. A log file is created for the purpose of tracking a system or a user's behavior, and fast troubleshooting and solution determination.
One scan or one examination, which is referred to in the field of medical imaging, means a scan on a patient using a medical imaging device (for example, a CT device, a MRI device) to generate an image desired by a physician. This scan or examination process is completed with a plurality of scanning elements, which correspond to different subsystems, each having a unique way to maintain its log files. These subsystems that cooperate to complete a scan are referred to as an imaging chain. The tasks of respective subsystems are recorded in log files, forming semantics of their own.
Log file analysis is rather trivial and time consuming. A large amount of information is hidden in the log files, which are then scattered among various subsystems. Moreover, the relationship among these log files is so complicated that ordinary technicians would find it hard to collect desired information from these related log files, not to mention analyze these log files for troubleshooting. The information hidden in the log files is significant, but there have not yet been a simple and accurate method to read this information. Although some log analysis systems have been proposed in the art, they generally demand operations of skilled engineers of specific fields and expertise. This undoubtedly causes high cost and difficulty to the use and operation of the system.
Additionally, log files are conventionally searched and analyzed based on syntax and format, that is, log files are simply analyzed by examining whether or not they include the search keyword. That is, the existing technology fails to interpret the semantic of every item of information itself, not to mention the relationship among log files based on the semantics thereof. Consequently, when awaiting a log file analysis result, a user is only given a large amount of discrete data, which has hardly any relationship. Besides, the result is not presented via a clear and simple interface, and thus hard to read, only to increase difficulty in troubleshooting, analysis and resolution.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a method and device for addressing the foregoing problems.